I'm writing to you all to request for help and/or participation in my current research into the use of Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) in Japanese elementary schools. This research attempts to look into the level of training that ALTs partake in before teaching and how they are used in elementary school classrooms. I'm also looking at ALTs opinions of the JTEs in the classroom and how they are prepared to teach English.

The research requires the opinions of as many ALTs who have taught in Japan within the last 2 years as possible. If you are kind enough to agree to take part please feel free to click the link below. If you aren't a ALT in Japan please don't worry, you can still help! Please spread this link to anyone you think may have connections to ALTs who have worked in Japan recently. This will help it reach more ALTs and allow them to tell us their experiences, difficulties and desires of teaching in Japan.

This forum allows you to post relevant questions about tourism, accommodation, transportation, work, night-life, language schools, and other Japan-related practical matters. Working in JapanStudying in Japan

Tenjinyama Castle was a stronghold of the Inaba Yamana clan. It was also known as Fuse-Tenjinyama Castle (布勢天神山城 Fuse-tenjinyamajō). The notion that Yamana Katsutoyo (山名勝豊), the fifth shugo (military governor) of Inaba, constructed the castle in 1466 seems unlikely, given that Katsutoyo died in...

In the Muromachi Period (1336-1467), the Yamana clan (山名氏 Yamana-shi) was one of the most powerful samurai families of Japan. The Yamana held the position of shugo (military governors on behalf of the shōgun) over eleven provinces. At the peak of their power in the early Muromachi Period, they...

Located in northern Hyōgo Prefecture, Izushi (出石) is also known as the "Little Kyōto of Tajima". The small castle town - merged into Toyooka in 2005 - is famous for its nostalgic atmosphere, its traditional Japanese architecture, and its very own kind of buckwheat noodles: Izushi-soba.
History...

Kanazawa Bunko (金沢文庫), also known as the Kanesawa (or Kanezawa) Bunko, is a library located in Kanazawa-chō, Kanazawa-ku, in the city of Yokohama. Along with the Ashikaga Gakkō library, it was one of the two most important centres of learning in medieval Japan. Nowadays, it is a private museum...

Kōban (交番), translated as “police box”, are the ubiquitous urban police stations in Japan usually located next to train stations, shopping centres, busy intersections, but also throughout residential districts. Originally called hashutsusho (派出所, “despatch station” or “local police station”) in...

Toyooka (豊岡市) is located in northern Hyōgo Prefecture in the centre of the San'in Kaigan Geopark (山陰海岸ジオパーク). While the city stretches over 700 square kilometres after its merger with the surrounding towns of Hidaka, Izushi, Kinosaki, Takeno, and Tantō in 2005, the actual town centre is quite...

Ibaraki Prefecture (茨城県 Ibaraki-ken) is located in central Honshū and bounded by Fukushima Prefecture to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east, and Tochigi and Saitama prefectures to the west. The northern part is occupied by mountains of the Abukuma (阿武隈山地) and Yamizo (八溝山地) mountain ranges,...

Fukushima is the southernmost prefecture of the Tōhoku Region in northern Honshū and consists of three subregions:
the Aizu Region (会津), or Aizu District, in the west with the principal city of Aizuwakamatsu,
the Nakadōri Region (中通り), or the Ken-nan District, in the centre with the principal...

The former residence of the Nomura family (野村家) is located in Nagamachi, the bukeyashiki or samurai quarter of Kanazawa, a quiet district characterised by its long straight mud-daub walls topped with traditional wooden slats called kobaita (小羽 板) and covered with straw mats (こも komo) in winter....

Oyama Shrine (尾山神社 Oyama-jinja) is located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, just west of Kanazawa Castle Park. It commemorates Maeda Toshiie (前田 利家, 1538-1599), the first daimyō of Kaga Domain and was constructed in 1599 by his son and successor, Maeda Toshinaga, at Utatsuyama (卯辰山). For that...

Kanazawa (金沢) is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture and the political, economic, and cultural centre of the Hokuriku Region. Kanazawa developed in the 15th century as a de facto autonomous temple town of the Ikkō sect. In 1580, the Ikkō movement was destroyed by Sakuma Morimasa, who built...

Kinosaki Onsen (城崎温泉) is one of the oldest onsen resorts in Japan with a history that dates back to the 8th century. Kinosaki is located in northern Hyōgo Prefecture and was merged with Toyooka City (豊岡市) in 2005. The hot springs of Kinosaki are said to have healing properties, a fact that was...

Kageishi Castle (景石城 Kageishi-jō) was located in former Inaba Province near the post station of Mochigase-shuku (用瀬宿) along Inaba Kaidō (因幡街道) at the confluence of Sendai River and Sajigawa River. Inaba Kaidō connected the province of Harima (modern-day Okayama Prefecture) with Tottori.
The map...

Kanazawa Castle Park is located next to Kenroku-en. Originally, Kenroku-en was an outlying garden of the castle before it was opened to the public in 1871. Kanazawa Castle (金沢城 Kanazawa-jō) was the seat of the powerful Maeda clan who ruled the Kaga Domain for fourteen generations from 1583 until...

Kenroku-en (兼六園, "The Garden of the Six Attributes") is one of the three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kairaku-en in Mito and Kōraku-en in Okayama. Kenroku-en is located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and was founded in the early 17th century the Maeda clan who ruled the Kaga Domain...

Kawahara Castle (河原城 Kawahara-jō) is a hilltop castle located in the former town of Kawahara-machi about 10 kilometres south of Tottori City at the confluence of the Sendai and the Hatto rivers. Kawahara-machi was merged into Tottori City in 2004.
The castle is also known as Maruyama Castle...

The Ukiyo-e Ōta Memorial Museum of Art (浮世絵 太田記念美術館 Ukiyo-e Ōta kinen bijutsukan) is a small museum located in Harajuku that houses the woodblock print (ukiyo-e) collection of Ōta Seizo V (1893-1977), a former president of Tōhō Insurance. He amassed over 12,000 pieces of prints that are...

Japanese gardens are widely known for a particular design following a unique aesthetic and philosophical concept. Tokyo hosts several of these gardens to be visited and enjoyed not just by garden fanatics but also by the ordinary tourist to encounter a new garden design as well as the regular...

Animal and pet cafés remain very popular in Tokyo, for locals and tourists alike. They are now to be found in almost every neighbourhood. The range of animals to be touched, fed and cuddled is wide and not any longer restricted to the usual cats and dogs. Depending on your preferences for fur,...

Ishikawa Prefecture (石川県 Ishikawa-ken) is located in the Chūbu region in central Honshū and bounded by the Sea of Japan on the west and the north, Toyama Bay and Toyama and Gifu prefectures on the east, and Fukui Prefecture on the south. It is divided into the Kaga region to the south and the...

Most travel guides on Japan state that it is not customary to give tips. As gratuity is already included in bills and prices in the form of a 10 to 15 per cent service charge, many are not aware of the fact that they do pay tips. Therefore, the notion of “service = free of charge” is deeply...

Sengaku-ji (泉岳寺) is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple located in Minato-ku, Tōkyō, close to Sengakuji Station on Toei Asakusa Line and Shinagawa Station. The temple is famous because of its association with the Akō-gishi (the Forty-Seven Rōnin) who rest in the temple precinct along with their master...

Edo Castle (江戸城 Edo-jō) was built by Ōta Dōkan (太田道灌, 1432-1486) in 1457. In the Edo Period (1603-1868), it was the administrative headquarters of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the residence of the shōgun, and the largest castle in Japan at its time. Although it is classified as a flatland castle (平城...

Your Japan Guide is a your new source of information about the beautiful country of the rising sun. You will find in our website useful information written by our Tokyo-based team. We will cover for you themes like Travel, Japanese culture, Food and also Lifestyle...---

Grace Buchele Mineta was born and raised in Texas, before moving to Ghana (and later Japan) in her teenage years. She lives in Tokyo with her husband, where she writes and blogs about interracial and intercultural relationships, daily life in Japan, and the life of a freelancer abroad on her blog, "Texan in Tokyo." She graduated from Ursinus College in Pennsylvania and spent one year in Tokyo under the Boren Scholarship. Her first book, "My Japanese Husband Thinks I'm Crazy" is an autobiographical comic book about her life in Tokyo.---

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